In Qian Zhongshu‘s (钱钟书) 1947 novel Fortress Besieged (围城), one of the greatest works of twentieth-century Chinese literature, protagonist Fang Hung-chien attempts to build a career with a fake degree from an imaginary American university. As seen in a post yesterday [zh] from Bullog blogger Fang Zhouzi, life does still imitate art, seventy years later, and at even the highest levels in Chinese society:

吴征“博士”失母校：巴灵顿大学关门大吉

在中国很著名的美国“大学”、吴征获得其博士学位的巴灵顿大学（又写做巴林顿、柏林顿、百林顿大学）在2004年被美国总审计局特殊调查办公室认定为属于标价贩卖文凭的“文凭制造厂”（diploma mill）。

巴灵顿大学于1998年9月14日在阿拉巴马州注册，查阿拉巴马州政府公司登记资料，该“大学”已于今年4月19日解散。

其网站barrington.edu也已关闭。

吴征“博士”没有母校了。

不过吴“博士”不要伤心，中国还有一些高管是他的校友，例如中国汽车系统股份公司董事局主席、首席执行官陈涵霖在其简历中称自己“毕业于美国Barrington大学的MBA”。

Corporation D/C 198-198
Legal Name: Barrington University Incorporated
Place Of Inc: Montgomery County
Date Of Inc.: 09-14-1998 Dissolved.: 04-19-2006
Reg Agent…: GIBSON, SHIREE
801 EXECUTIVE DRIVE #204
MOBILE, AL 36606-2811
Prin Address: MOBILE, AL
Capital Amt.: 100 Authorized — Paid In
Nat Of Bus..: OPERATION OF A CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL/DISTANCE LEARNING
Names Of Inc: EWING, RICHARD

(XYS20060930)

Late last month Journal of Selected Poetry editor Zhao Lihua (赵丽华) found herself on the sharp end of the Chinese blogsphere when several of her old (and admittedly poorly-written) poems were dug up, posted viral, mocked and spoofed to no end. First bringing Chinese poetry back to the forefront of public consciousness, the incident then led to discussions over the value of destructured verse seen in Zhao's poems. One of the more prominent has been the blog battle between author, musician, race car driver and voice of those born post-1980 Han Han and 1990s grassroots literature sensation Shen Haobo, with the younger writer taking the conservative stance [zh]:

现代诗和诗人怎么还存在

前两天这里在争吵诗不诗的问题，没看，觉得奇怪。因为我的观点一直是现代诗歌和诗人都没有存在的必要的，现代诗这种体裁也是没有意义的。这年头纸挺贵，好好的散文，写在一行里不好吗？古诗的好在于他有格式，格式不是限制，就像车一定要开在指定路线的赛道里一样，才会有观众看，你撒开花了到处乱开，这不就是交通现状吗，观众自己瞎开也能开成那样，还要特地去看你瞎开？这就是为什么发展到现在诗歌越来越沦落。因为它已经不是诗，但诗人还以为自己在写诗。

Shen's retort and those following [zh] pulled no punches, dissing Han in language so elegant as to render it untranslatable. A post [zh] written on September 28 mocks Han's having dropped out of high school, poor car racing performance and Han's funding of his own album after being ignored by several music companies. Posts over the last several days have seen a series of increasingly insulting poems—written in Zhao's destructured style—blogged back and forth between the two men.